Chapter 5: The Thank-You Brunch

Bridget's mother had sent the invitations on cream cardstock, and Hazel's friend from church brought one to our kitchen with a worried face.

"Thank-you brunch for the wedding guests," Hazel read aloud. "Sunday, eleven, Lakeview Country Club. In honor of the happy couple."

"Which couple?" I asked.

"It doesn't say."

I stood in the kitchen with my daughter asleep in the carrier on my chest and read it three times.

"I'm going," I said.

"I know," said Hazel. "I'll get my good cardigan."

The Lakeview terrace was full by eleven.

Sixty people stood in the sun with mimosas. I knew half of them from my own wedding.

There was a wedding cake, a small one, with two names piped on it in white icing.

Brennan and Bridget stood at the center of the terrace, side by side, in a ring of people patting them on the back.

He wore a new blazer. She wore white.

I walked in through the glass doors with Hazel at my elbow.

The first person to see me was a woman I'd once taught to knit, and her glass stopped halfway to her mouth.

The silence moved across the terrace in a wave, from her to the next person to the next, until even the waiter had stopped pouring.

Brennan turned.

His face went white.

"Emmy," he said. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to congratulate you."

I walked straight across the stone terrace, my daughter warm against my ribs.